Perfection for others to savour

Anél Potgieter from Century City doesn’t slave over the stove – she excels.

If anything, she is a slave to her own determination.

She wants to create perfection, and like a true artist, she creates for the pleasure of others.

It is one thing to have a “talented palette” and another to share this gift with as many people as possible. Much like her original dishes, this need is being fulfilled.

Anél’s popular blog has just been nominated by Eat Out magazine as “best food blog of the year”.

When she was 11 years old she helped budding chefs at a church fete to prepare sublime curries, so the savvy of succulence has always coursed through her veins.

But as food-lover and American president Theodore Roosevelt once said: “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain and difficulty.”

Anél had plenty of this in 2012.

“I was incredibly depressed after my Masterchef rejection episode. I made it into the top 35 and that’s just not good enough. I took it very seriously and felt completely rejected. That’s when I started eating my favourite cookies, zoo biscuits, and couldn’t stop. Week after week I ate those biscuits. Thankfully I woke up one morning and decided enough is enough. I needed to write about food and create my own space where no-one can criticise it. That’s how my blog http://www.lifeisazoobiscuit.com started!”

Her heart has healed and the goddess of food has opened her arms to her.

“Now my life really is like a zoo biscuit – happy, colourful and full of joy and excitement!”

In effect, Anél “simmered until ready”.

And now that she’s on the menu the public simply cannot get enough of her!

She now writes a blog for Food24, is a regular face on SABC3’s breakfast show, Expresso, and she was recently announced as the winner of SABC2’s first season of Dinner Divas.

The food connoisseur has a plethora of food-related hints (add a little salt, too much cinnamon, easy on the thyme), so for someone who is so “complete” to experiment with food, it comes as a massive surprise when she says: “I love buying pizza and even McDonalds every now and again!”

According to her she once sprinkled some onions over chocolate mousse.